In The News

This is why migrants trek from Guatemala to the United States

Tennessean

As a spiritual leader, I am often asked to give guidance on today’s most difficult dilemmas. “Rabbi,” asks a congregant, “what can we, as Americans, do about the steady stream of immigrants crossing our southern border in search of a better life?” My reply is simple: If we want to create systemic change, we must …

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Foundations Must Do Far More to Aid Transgender People

The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Transgender people are our colleagues, friends, neighbors, and family members. More than one million transgender people live in the United States, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. And in philanthropy, as many as one person in 50 people identifies as transgender or gender nonconforming, according Funders for LGBTQ Issues.

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Trump may be blind to foreign aid’s merits, but we must not be

The Hill

The American people consistently demonstrate their values through generous private giving to lift up vulnerable people around the world. This giving funds programs that combat poverty and hunger, advance human rights, prevent disease and protect and educate children, among other laudable outcomes.

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Area rabbis talk human rights with representatives

The Jewish Advocate

In total, 28 American rabbis and social justice advocates participated in a human rights lobbying day organized by American Jewish World Service. They urged officials to take action on three human rights issues. They are advocating for human rights in Guatemala; justice for the Rohingya people in Burma, who have suffered genocide; and an end …

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‘Resistance,’ Guatemalan Style

Jewish Week

The liberal Jewish community has been part of the so-called Trump resistance for two years now, especially on the immigration issue. Delegations of like-minded rabbis have traveled to the southern border to protest the administration’s policy of separating families and connect with activists there.

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Witnessing Guatemala’s suffering is a transformative experience

St. Jewish Light

The treatment of children on our southern border has many Americans asking why so many are being separated from their families, kept in detention and how 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo and 7-year-old Jakelin Caal, both from Guatemala, died in our custody on our watch.

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Teaneck activist rabbi joins AJWS mission to Guatemala

Jewish Standard

When you want to help the victims of injustice, it is not enough to hear about their suffering secondhand and then decide what they need, Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster of Teaneck said. Instead, it’s more effective to speak directly with people who already are  addressing these problems on the ground, and to find out what they are …

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